Grand jury says roads going from bad to worse

The condition of San Diego’s roads has deteriorated over the past four years, and Mayor Jerry Sanders needs to formally commit to improving it, the county grand jury said in a report released this week.

The report, entitled “San Diego Streets: Going from Bad to Worse,” cites data from the National Transportation Research Group, a think tank funded by road builders and others, saying half of the city’s streets are in poor condition — more than twice the national average.

The report cites city audits that said that a key index of measuring street quality, the Overall Condition Index, has gone from a 63 percent rating in 2007 to 54 percent in 2011, more than 20 points below the industry standard of 75 percent.

Yes 13% (70)

No 87% (467)

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City studies have also shown that city roads need about $478 million in repairs. Sanders’ budget proposal of $34.1 million for the 2012-2013 fiscal year to repair streets only maintains the current conditions and does not improve them, the report states.

“Such a ‘status quo’ option of limited effort will only perpetuate today’s problems,” the report states. “San Diego city streets have been neglected for so many years that both the mayor and City Council must focus on improving this community asset.”

The group calls on the city to formally resolve to commit to “upgrading of the operations, maintenance and capital improvements for all the streets of ‘America’s Finest City.’”

Sanders’ office responded that the grand jury report fails to acknowledge that the city has pledged more than $100 million in road repairs since 2010, including $47 million spent in 2010 from issuing capital-improvement bonds and a commitment to use $25 million in Transnet Tax Revenues next fiscal year.

By comparison, the city spent about $4 million a year on road repairs in the 10 years before Sanders became mayor, Sanders’ office said.

“In the past few years, the city has committed an unprecedented amount of money to fix streets that suffered from decades of neglect,” Sanders’ spokesman Alex Roth said. “Sadly, the Grand Jury report fails to mention this historic financial commitment.”

The grand jury recommends the city commit to a spending plan that assures at the very least that the city’s streets not continue to deteriorate, streamline the capital improvement process to promote street repairs and assess all city streets every four years.

Also, the group recommends the city put a five-year maintenance and capital improvement plan on its website. The city has 90 days to issue an official response to the grand jury report.